He was not sure what it had meant.

“_Caveat emptor_.” such an interesting phrase that the stranger chose to whispered into his ear. He believed that it was Latin.

When he had looked back, the sojourner with the soft voice was already out of sight.

He sighed and turned to pay the merchant, “You value **nostalgia** right? I think this is enough.” He said, removing a few brass trinkets from his pocket.

The vendor furrowed their brows and tapped a little at the crudely made objects. With a slight rasp in their voice, they started:”Well, I **DO** value nostalgia, but your…let me phrase it like this. These objects only have negative emotions attached. You probably need to _PAY_ me to get rid of them.”

They had a weird expression on their face when they said that. It makes the traveler think that the merchant was not telling the whole story.

He put his hand over the small metal decoration and conceded to his friend’s advice. ‘Traveling at night it is then.’

He thought about how the night here isn’t really night, as in the three suns alternate between each other every other hour or so in shining down on the scorched sands.

The _night_ here is more when there is only one sun in the sky and not everything is dying of water loss.

The twin suns burnt high in the sky as he walked down the errant path in the desert wasteland.

He needed somewhere to camp for the day, as only in the darkness that he was safe. Not only from the suns, but most importantly from the belligerent traveling folks in these parts of the forsaken gap lands.

Ideally, he would have traveled with the merchant’s caravan, but they were unreliable as always. Hell, he even gave them his most prized possession! Not that he was sure what that little hunk of metal does.

Something dark shimmered in the distance and it quickly caught his eye. He lifted a hand to his eyes to block the harsh sunlight from interfering with his sight. It was a cave, rare, but not impossible to find. The question was, who was in that cave.

As he trudged closer, the silhouettes of a few men and women became clear to his eyes. From the looks of their clothing, they were not from around here.

“Hey!”he tried to catch their attention. The women looked startled, while the two men just looked…bored?

He caught the eye of one of the men. Sapphire eyes stared back at him, cold and calculating in a way that made shivers run down his spine.

The other man looked him up and down as if certifying something. He looked satisfied when he saw the brass object tucked into one of the traveler’s pockets.

He spoke out loud and it was then that he realized that it was the soft voice of the man that warned him back at the vendor.

“I see that you have taken my advice to your heart.” He said in a smooth tone.

The traveler thought of the “_Caveat emptor_.” and realized that’s what he meant.

“Is this something important to you?” The traveler asked, holding out the small metal decoration out in an outstretched hand.

The group of three looked excitedly at each other and chattered in a foreign language.

Part 1 of _The Sojourner’s Brass Heart _short story__

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_Caveat emptor——the buyer beware_